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Disclaimer: This web
site is run by a homeowner living in the Quatraine
III community. The views and statements made on this page
do not reflect those of the current board of directors. In other
words, it's my site, and me talking, not anyone else, This web site is not
the official viewpoint of the board, therefore, think of it as a BLOG or FICTION.
Listen to any radio talk show and you'll hear a similar disclaimer.

10/13/17 - Our property manager Becky Chucci is
retiring. She managed our property since September of
2009, which is 8 years of service. It was a great run, but all
good things must come to an end. The new property
manager will be at the next meeting on Oct 18th.

10/12/17 - The pool leak was repaired. There
was a pipe under the pavers in the deep end of the pool that was leaking.
It was fixed and now we'll see if the water usage goes down.

10/04/17 - Today the landscapers were able to cut the
grass for the first time since Irma. That marks 3 1/2 weeks
since the storm passed through. The neighborhood looks much better,
even though a few bulk piles remain. The cost for Native
Sun to clean up to this point was $20,125. Many homeowners thought
cleaning up the hurricane mess was part of the normal job. No, it
wasn't. The cost for the master to clean up from this point
was $15,700, which included all the down tree branches along the north side of
the lake.

A master association meeting was held at Parc Court
clubhouse. The 2018 budget was approved, keeping the same budget as
the previous year. Tree cleanup was the main discussion.

09/26/17 - The property manager was sent 2 PDF files
from the city that explain their position on why the cleanup didn't happen.
Apparently there are bidding wars when it comes to hiring the cleanup companies
and the City of Plantation was outbid by others.
Click each link to read the explanation then use your back button to return
here.
Debris Removal Letter To Residents
Debris Removal FAQS from Website

09/22/17 - The property manager called the city and was
told it may be until Thanksgiving or Halloween until the debris is picked up.
This was unacceptable to the board, so Native Sun is being hired to haul away
the debris. Same thing for the master association with 2nd to None being
hired. Hauling the debis away from the north lake area won't
happen for a week but Steve is aware of it. There have been
many e-mails going back and forth about this situation. The board
discussed the idea of chipping the branches and putting it down as mulch, but it
doesn't look that great so that idea probably won't happen.

09/15/17 - Bulk pick up has been suspended for this
month. The City will provide pick up service of all vegetation/landscape
debris on private/condo roads (thus includes our community ). The
vegetative/landscape items must be separated from bulk items such as furniture
etc otherwise the City will not pick it up. The City will first go around the
neighborhoods to assess the situation and then they will pick it up.
The city does not work on the weekends. This means the earliest the
city will be out is Monday the 18th, and that's only to asses the situation.
Our pool still has a leak. The level of the water is below the
tiles, however, it is still safe to swim in the pool. The fence
painting job has been suspended until after the hurricane cleanup.

09/14/17 - A few spots in the neighborhood had water
leaking into the street. This happens often as roots bust pipes near
the water meter. If the leak is on the city side, the city will fix
it for free. If it's between the meter and home, the homeowner will have
to pay a plumber to have it fixed. The city will only turn off the
water at the meter. Here is the web site of the city to handle water
leaks.
http://www.plantation.org/Utilities/

9/13/17 - On this day a huge storm passed through the
area, dumping a bunch of water and clogging the drains. A few
homeowners were outside trying to clear them with yard rakes.
I was driving home from work, made it home, and joined them with my metal rake.
This is what is needed to clean the storm drains, a think metal rake.
Scrape across the drain throwing the leaves into the grass and the water drains.
11 years ago the board had the drains flushed. This idea was brough
up again and the board agreed we should have the drains flushed again.

09/10/17 - Hurricane Irma passed through Florida.
Q3 had some damage but nothing compared to Wilma in 2005.
Q3 did not lose power, yet 657,000 homes in broward county did. If
you look below, you'll see that Asplundh had trimmed trees in front in June.
There was also a hard trim job done by Native Sun in March that costs $17,745
after a tornado passed between Q3 and Waterford Courtyards. I walked
the community after the storm passed clearing storm drains and moving branches
from the road. I counted a few homes with tree branches that fell, 1
up rooted palm tree that fell in an island (no fence damage) and the trees at
the back lake fell on the play ground structure. But there
were no uprooted trees that fell into fences. Some
people said it was dumb to paint the fences when the hurricane came through.
The fence painting job was planned months ago, and the hurricanes were not
present when the job started. Most fences survived with no
damage because the fence posts are now 4 feet apart.

I rode my bike through Q4 and they had many uprooted
trees. That's the difference of doing a trimming job in March.
Q3 only had 1 downed tree with a few branches that fell, while Q4 had many
uprooted trees that fell into the fences. There were many uprooted trees
between Q3/Q4 along the north side of the lake. This is the job of
the master. Those trees are huge and trimming them is practially
impossible. Everytime a storm comes through, the branches fall
blocking the sidewalk.

09/01/17 - The broken lock at the pool gate was repaired
by a locksmith. Mid South was on property all week painting fences,
which look great now that they are the same color.
We're still looking for a 5th board member if anyone wants to be involved with
making a difference in our community.

08/14/17 - The meeting scheduled for Wednesday Aug 16
was cancelled. The reason why is the property manager could not
attend due to an injury.

07/19/17 - The pool is still leaking water.
There's an auto fill to keep the water level high, but it's using more
chemicals. The board ordered another leak test.
A new version of the Rules and Regulations was mailed to all homeowners.Rules and Regulations
2017.doc

06/21/17 - A meeting was held at Volunteer Park.
In attendance were the 4 board members, the property manager, and 1 homeowner.
An updated bid from Mid South Painting was reviewed, a motion made, and the bid
was accepted in the amount of $29,615. All concerns the board
brought up were addressed. Why did it take so long to get a bid?
Because each one was different (apples to oranges) and filled with legalese, the
board reviewed 4 bids, one as high as 38k and didn't include protecting the
areas behind the fences. After receiving 4 bids and
still having a bunch of questions, I wrote up a complete scope of work that was
reviewed by the board. This was sent to Mid South and their
bid came back a little higher but addressed all concerns. The
other companies were already disqualified at this point because of price or the
bid didn't address the scope of work. Mid South will
pressure clean the community, the pool pavers, the fences, put one coat on
sections of bare fences, then one coat of paint on all the common area fences.
They will take care to protect plants and furniture on the other side of the
fences, along with taping off the gate hindges and latches.
Existing hindges and latches that are already white, will be painted white.
The entrance planters and sign at 98th ave will be cleaned and painted Shabby
Chic with blue lettering. The first phase of this
project is the pressure cleaning. There was
discussion about finding a 5th board member and having someone take over the
accounts at the attorney. If you would like to join the
board, let us know or come to a meeting.

06/20/17 - Asplundh trimmed the trees out front along
Cleary Blvd. There were a few branches that had snapped off from the
tornado and others that were growing into the cable lines.

06/12/17 - Board member Vivian Karr has resigned.
Vivian was on the board for 18 years. Vivian did a great job and we
thank her for the service. Vivian's niche in her last year was
working with the attorney for debt collections after Shari moved away.
This is an important aspect of the board, because this is how we collect money
from dead beats who don't pay their HOA fees. The money is usually
collected when a new homeowner buys the property and the outstanding debt is
collected as part of the closing. Some try to contact the board
asking if the debt can be reduced, but we don't give any breaks.
The new homeowner usually rolls this fee into their mortgage.
This brings the number of current board members down to 4 and we'll look to
replace the position. Most boards have 3, 5, or 7 members.
If you would like to join the board, please come to a meeting.

5/22/17 - Board member Connie Lino has resigned citing
a passing in the family (Mother). Connie served since 2013 (4
years) and did a great job working with the landscaping company (Native Sun),
gave input on things that needed repair, and helped with the violation list.
The board thanks Connie for her service. If you would like to
be a board member, please come to a meeting.

05/12/17 - The pool re-opened just in time for the
weekend. That means the total time for this repair was about 2
weeks, one week faster than what I predicted.

05/07/17 - I went to the pool to check out
the repairs. The pool was being refilled. It seems the
repairs were made and completed. The sides were spotless after the
acid wash. The two cracks in the shallow end were repaired and
looked great. This is great news and the pool
should be open in a couple days. The leak may have been a
blessing, because now the pool was acid washed and looks perfect for the summer.
Remember, the pool lights only come on at night and they are only 12v.
The power of each light is stepped down from 120v to 12v by boxes at the side of
the pool. There is no chance of being electrocuted while
swimming in our pool.

05/01/17 - The pool was drained to repair the crack in
the shallow end. Another crack was discovered. The
total to fix both is $1,610 by Seminole Pool. The board also approved the pool be
acid washed to removed black algae at a cost of $1,150. On this day
I met with Michelle and Stuart from the Master to mark 11 bottle brush trees
that can be removed along Cleary. One of the trees is at the 99th
ave entrance of Q3. Seven trees are behind Jacaranda Point
along the sidewalk, and 3 trees are between QIV and Parc Court.

04/19/17 - A meeting was held at Volunteer park.
Violations and accounts at the attorney were discussed. Bids
for fence painting are still being researched. A homeowner
asked how fence repairs in the back yard are shared between neighbors.
The answer is that the neighbors need to work it out on their own. A
fence company can tell how much each section of the fence costs so the neighbors
can equally pay. Another homeowner came to talk about her rat
problem. The rats entered the home through the sewer, ate a hole in
the pipe above the bathroom (where it forms a T), and ran up and down that
section of the wall. The homeowner had Critter Control
and the City of Plantation come out (during the day), and both said there was no
problem. The rats were coming out at night, running up and down the
wall (the homeowner called this a party), then leaving. The rats
were trapped between the studs and could only run up and down that 2 foot
section of wall before leaving through the hole in the pipe. If you
hear strange noises coming from your walls at night, it could be rats.
This is why the board tells homeowners not to feed ducks or squirels and to only
put out garbage the morning of pick up. Can
the board put out traps? No. However, homeowners can buy
traps at Home Depot and put them out. Can the board tell
homeowners to trim their trees in the back yard and put away garbage?
Yes, but many do not listen.

04/13/17 - The pool has a leak. There
is a crack where two walls meet. The pool needs to be drained
below this level, and patched. The last time something like
this happened it took 3 weeks to repair. The cost of this is
$995.

04/05/17 - A master association meeting was held at Parc
Court. The annual meeting was held, minutues accept, annual meeting
adjourned. In the organizational meeting, the board welcomed Stuart
as the new VP from Parc Court. Michelle stayed on as President from
QIV. Robert stayed on as Treasurer from QIII. Ron was
voted as secretary from Jacaranda Point (absent). A motion was
made to have the sidewalks raised spots repaired by Atlantic Southern at a cost
of $2,099. A motion was made to have 2nd to None remove 5 more dead
bottle brush trees around the community, mostly along the sidewalks.
In a previous meeting, the board had made a motion to remove 5.
A proposal was presented for a new pressure cleaning company, but the board
decided to stay with Fast Layne Services (previously Hartzell) because the price
is the same. I did mention the side walk on the north side of
the lake between QIII/QIV needs to be pressure cleaned. Stuart asked
about trash being left behind by the landscapers. Discussion ensued
about hiring a janitorial service company (Cleaning Depot) which will be
discussed at the next meeting adding a new line item to the budget.

03/21/17 - A hardwood tree trimming job was done by
Native Sun all week. The cost of this job was $17, 745 and included
the specs are to clear 15 feet over roadways, 8 feet over walkways, and 7 feet
of clearance over turf areas. The list includes over 300 trees.
The recent tornado that touched down at Waterford Courtyards is a reason why the
board decided to do the tree trimming job.

03/01/15 - Raised spots on the sidewalks were ground
down by Florida Sidewalk Solutions at a cost of $1,908.
Approximately 90 letters went out to homeowners to repair their fences,
specifically the bottom parts that are rotting away. The gate at the
back lake was also repaired by Home Rescue of Florida at a cost of $375.

2/15/17 - The annual meeting was held at
Volunteer Park. There were 6 people in the audience, the total
number of homeowners (in person or proxy) was 15. This was not
enough to have a membership meeting and the current board rolled over for the
11th year. In the regular meeting, the fence project was discussed.
We have approximately 5200 feet of linear fence to paint, which includes all the
fences in the front roads, back along the canals, and any fence that faces the
common area. There are 50 violation letters going out about the fences.
Homeowners will have 15 days to make repairs. There are 6 accounts
at the attorney that are slowly moving through the system. Our
boards gets the money back when the home sells and the deliquent HOA fees are
charged at that time, or if the homeowner pays all the attorney fees.
We have a board member who is dedicated to tracking accounts moving through the
attorney process, along with the president who gets letters from the attorney
which show the checks to be deposited into our operating account.
Side walk repairs were approved by the company Sidewalk Solutions for $1,908.
They will "cut" the bad spots down making them smooth. There is one
spot that needs to be completely replaced which will be done by Thomas Burke.
In the open forum, a homeowner asked if we can enforce the pooper scooper
regulation. Unless someone can get a picture of the dog
pooping and the person walking away, no. Many people walk
their dogs late at night when it is dark thinking no one will see them.
The same homeowner spoke up about a dangerous turn leading into the community on
98th ave. The 1st culdesac to the left (801-825), when cars
pull out making a right turn, they don't stop at the stop sign and swing the
turn wide. This puts the car into the middle of the road where
accidents can (and have) happened. A car will be entering the
community on 98th ave heading north, and another car will make a right turn out
of the 1st culdesac to the left, swing the turn wide, and crash.
I usually go slow entering the community and expect a car to pull out from this
culdesac. I move over to the far right of the street if I'm
traveling on 98th ave. Another homeowner asked
about the exposed comcast wires. Comcast doesn't bury the wires
because they would hit tree roots. They simply cover them with a
little dirt and they are exposed. A homeowner asked about
rats, they are a problem because people feed the ducks and squirels.
People need to stop feeding the animals. Parc Court has
rat baits behind their building, they are $25 each and cost $5 to re-bait them.
Bait traps can be put out if they are secure and children can't get to them.
Tree roots are above ground in tree circles and between homes. The
roots can not be covered by dirt or grass because the tree would die.
Each homeowner is responsible for their own trees and they have to work with the
city to get a permit for removal. Black olive trees are considered a
nuisance and can be removed. The problem is the city wants money for
their tree fund. The cost a homeowner has to pay is $1,800, and
another homeowner said the permit was $1,500 to remove a tree. Over
at Parc Court, they wanted to remove 30 nuisance trees and worked out a deal
with the city. At first they wanted 60k, but their board members
went and met with the tree people and got that number down to 24k, this money
going to the city tree fund. 60k divided by 30 is 2k, which
proves the city wants between $1,500 and 2k for each tree that is removed.
Personally, I think this is extortion, but that's how our city works.
So when you see trees with roots above ground, and there's a tree next to a
water meter, the homeowner is resposible and has to work with the city to get a
permit. These trees are usually removed when a homeowner
has a problem with their water meter (pipes breaking), and has to make the
repair.

2/13/17 - Went on a bike ride over to Q1 and met their
vice president. Found out their fee is $330 a month, but could go
even higher. I'll have to check the realtor listings in a few
weeks. They have many issues dealing with the property
management company. A condo owner who also owns in Q4 came out
and talked to me, complaining about the trees being so close to the condo
building. I told her the city is to blame with their strict tree
policies.

02/09/17 - In preparation for the annual meeting, I
wrote up a list of things the board accomplished during the year and it's added
to the minutes. This got me thinking of what the HOA fee is for the
communities near Q3. I looked up the info in realtor web
sites.

QI - $330 (Condos built at the same time as
Q2)QII - $160 (Homes similar to Q3)QIII - $125 (This community, Same
fee for 11 years)QIV - $150 (Located East, similar to Q3 but larger)QV -
$200 (Located next to Q2, similar to Q3 with enclosed patio)Chelsea - $300
(Townhomes across from Q2)Chatham Towne - $355 (Townhomes next to Q5)
Jacaranda Pointe - $115 (Homes Across from Q4)Parc Court - $302 (Condos next
to Q4)The Colonnades - $377 (Condos Across from Central Park)Arbor
Courts - $175 (Condos next to Chelsea)Waterford Courtyards - $325 (Townhomes
directly to the south of Q3)

Besides Jacaranda Pointe, Q3 has the lowest HOA fee in
the area. I could not imagine living in the other
communities with such high HOA fees. And don't forget,
QIV also has a special assessment of $300, making their actual HOA fee $175 a
month. On the other hand, Q3 has not raised the fee or
had a special assessment in 11 years.

02/08/17 - On this day, the pool light in the deep end
was replaced at a cost of $400. The previous light had burned out.

When the contractor pressure cleans, if all the paint
comes off then you need to seal it. Miller will tint the sealer the
color of the paint at no charge. How much sealer and
paint you need to use is different for each home, but the average home in Q3
needs approximately 10 gallons of paint. If the home is
sealed, it may need less paint. Talk with your contractor about how
much paint to buy. It's always good to have some left over for
touchups.

We went with the middle, Regal Select Ext Low Lustre for
$224.95 for each 5 gallon container. Visit Miller Paint, get the
chip color of your home (two homes next to each other can not be the same
color), the Chip Color
Chartis at the pool. Talk about the different paints
and sealer, fill out the AMF,
with the chip color, send it to Ambassador (it can take 2 weeks to come back),
wait for your approval, buy your paint (and sealer), let the contractor do the
job.

01/16/17 - The deadline for fence repairs has
passed. The property manager is walking the property with the
president looking for fences that need to be repaired. Homeowners
will have 15 days to make corrections. The board is researching bids
for pressure cleaning and painting.

01/15/17 - A homeowner stopped me as I was walking.
She showed me her back yard, which has rats living high up in the palm trees in
nests. The rats go into the culdesacs, break into bags, and
bring the bones to the homeowner's back yard. This is why it is important
to put garbage out on the day of collection. The homeowner called a
pest control company and they put down 3 rat traps. I've had the
same problem in my front yard, but in my case the rats tunnel under ground.

01/05/17 - I was walking with a friend and found out the
monthly maintenance fee at our neighbor QIV is currently $150 a month, it's been
that way for a year. They also have a $300 special assessment
for road re-surfacing. The increase of their fee to $150 was
supposed to pay for the road repairs. At first, the special
assessment was going to be $600, but everyone complained, so now it's $300.
This makes the current fee at QIV an effective $175 a month after adding the
special assessment. The fee at Q3 is $125 and it's
been that way for 11 years. When you are deciding which
neighborhood to move into, think of the HOA fee and special assessments.

01/01/17 - The latest newsletter is here.
It was mailed to all homeowners. Fences need to be repaired by
January 15th.Newsletter_Winter_2017.doc

12/21/17 - The lights across from Central Park at the
corner of The Colonnades were finally operational. These light had
been broken for 3 years before I got involved again dealing directly with the
vendor (Analog Electric).

12/14/16 - A meeting was held at Volunteer Park.
For the 3rd time in a row, no one showed up in the audience. It was
6 board members and the property manager. Hurricane shutters
need to be taken down. Many people still have them up.
Accounts at the attorney were discussed, as they are at every meeting.
Regarding pre paying the monthly fee, a few homeowners are using a bank service
that is not putting the proper account number on the check. These
accounts currently show as deliquent on the ledger, but should catch up once the
problem is resolved. Regarding paying your monthly fee by taking to
a BB&T branch at the last minute on the 10th of the month, this doesn't work,
because it has to be sent to a clearing house in Orlando.
Various issues of repair were also discussed. Homeowners have until
January 15th to finish repairs of the fences. The board
noticed that many fences are rotting along the bottom. These fence
boards need to be replaced. A walk through will happen after January
15th, and violation letters will be sent to all who still need to repair their
fence. A walk through to mark
sidewalks for raised spots will happen in January. Homeowners ask about
the fountain times. The fountain between Q3 and Q4 has a 4
hour break in the afternoon to conserve water in the lake from evaporation.
The fountain between Q4 and Parc Court comes on late in the morning at 11am and
runs till 11pm.

12/12/16 - My AC system had a leak. There
was a hole in the pipe leading to the compressor. All the freon
leaked out. I looked up reviews on Yelp for Air
Around the Clock, only 2 stars with bad reviews. They had
installed my Rudd system 13 years ago. A co-worker recommended All
Year Cooling out of Fort Lauderdale. They had 4 stars.
A technician came out Monday. This person does not repair your
system, but is there to try to sell you a new system, or show you how much the
repair will be. They could repair the system @ $800 because R-22 coolant is $100 a pound and I needed 7-8 pounds.
I verified this online. R-22 is being phased out and is very
expensive. The new system was quoted at $3,450, we
could go with York or Rudd. We went with York, a 3 ton 16.5 seer
system. The install took longer because they had the wrong
drip pan and had to wait for the correct one to be delivered twice.
The install finished on Monday night at 10pm.
The technician said it would only take 3 hours, it was more like 8.
Don't belive the salesman who puts the contract in front of you. If
your system is broken and you need it the same day, expect the intall to go into
the night. On Friday the 16th, I had a technician come out to reduce my fan speed by one
setting, he also added more Freon for free. I'm happy at this
point, the system is working perfectly.
If your system is over 10 years old, chances are it uses R-22 and will be too
expensive to repair. The FPL Rebate was $150, much less previous
years. The system is working great and I should save money since it
is more efficient. If you decide to go with All Year Cooling, please
let me know as they have a referal program. I would recommend
All Year Cooling, just expect the install will take 8 hours, while the salesman
will say 3. I would also say I'm happy with the York because I can
remove the upper panel on the air haldler and access the blower motor.
I could not do this with the Rudd system. Why is
this a big deal? Because I can clean the blower motor with
compressed air. http://www.allyearcooling.com

Old System - 13 year Rudd. Even though I had
the coils cleaned 2 years ago, you can see there was a lot of dirt.

New System - includes the new slab.

11/21/16 - The trees along the Cleary Blvd sidewalk were
trimmed by 2nd To None. This was part of the Master job to
trim the road and sidewalk areas of the 5 communities at a cost of $6,200.

11/03/16 - A hard cut was done on the bushes by Native
Sun. This makes the community look much better.

10/26/16 - A meeting was held at Volunteer Park.
For the 2nd time in a row, no one showed up in the audience.
The 2017 budget was passed which keeps the fee the same at $125 for the 11th
year in a row. Violations and accounts at the attorney were
discussed. Florida Sidewalk Solutions were mentioned
again to fix the raised spots of the sidewalks. We actually
found out the real reason why the pool is closed. It's because
one of the hooks that saves people was missing a screw. I'm not
making this up. That's what inspectors do, we heard this
one is new.

10/21/16 - The pool is closed due to a leak which caused
the chemical balace to be incorrect. The board approved a leak
test to make repairs.

10/05/16 - A master association meeting was held at Parc
Court club house. A motion was passed to accept the proposal from
Analog Electric to fix the lights at the corner of Cleary Blvd and Central Park
Place in the amount of $4,850. A motion was passed to accept
the proposal from 2nd to None to trim the trees in the amount of $6,200.
The sidewalks were marked and bids are in the works to fix cracked and rising
spots. The 2017 budget was passed, the bottom line amount remains
the same as the master builds up money once again. The
resignation of Tom Yeager (The Colonnades) was accepted. He cited time
restraints as the reason for resigning. The ends the 2 year failed
experiment of Michelle to have all the power, spending 35k with no regard to a
budget along the way and almost taking the bank account to zero before I spoke
up. Michelle was not present at this meeting and
things went very smooth with no arguing or bickering.
The next meeting will happen in April of 2017 (annual).

09/06/16 - The next meeting has been rescheduled for
October 26th. That's the only available Wednesday we can use
the room at Volunteer Park.

08/24/16 - A meeting was held at Volunteer Park.
No one showed up in the audience. There were 6 board members and the
property manager. That means the board is doing a good job when no
one shows up to revolt. A letter will be mailed to all
homeowners telling them to fix their fences. In February of
2017, the fences (common area) will be pressure cleaned, then painted in mid
February. Homeowners who do not make repairs in time will be
responsible to repair their own fence and paint it. Violation
letters will be sent after this and those who don't comply will end up at the
attorney. The updated newsletter will also be mailed at the
same time. The main part of the news letter is for homeowners
to not leave black garbage bags in front of their home, and to lock car doors.
A motion was made to order 4 pool filter cartridges at a cost of $531.
This is done every year. It was noted that the sidewalks are
lifting. A company was mentioned (Florida Sidewalk Solutions) that
grinds the raised spots. The biggest news of this meeting is the
proposed 2017 budget was passed, fee stays at $125 for the 11th year in a row,
and will be mailed to all homeowners with a meeting notice. Some of
the line items in the budget changed. For example, the irrigation
expenses went down with our new irrigation vendor, tree trimming also went down
by hiring Native Sun. Fertilization and extra landscaping projects
went up. These gains and losses basically off set each
other.

08/17/16 - At 3am a robber came into the neighborhood
checking for unlocked cars. He went through the northwest
culdesac and found a car unlocked. The next car had an alarm that
went off. The owner woke up, got dressed, came out, and gave chase
calling the police. The robber ran away, the cops arriving 10
minutes later. Sensor lights turning on, bright street lights,
doesn't matter. He went from car to car going through the culdesac
in 5 minutes. This means a person can go through the entire
neighborhood in 1 hour. I have noticed these robberies
happen at 3am early in the morning. But there have also been
cases of people breaking into homes in the middle of the day when they know the
owners are at Publix. The board mentions this in every newsletter, but
please...LOCK YOUR CAR DOORS AND BRING IN VALUABLES.

07/18/16 - On this day, the sidewalks, curbs, pool
fence, pavers, and front entrance wall were pressure cleaned by A-Plus pressure
cleaning at a cost of 1741.64.

07/04/16 - On this 4th of July holiday, I took my
Electrolux front loading washer machine apart and cleaned the pump hoses.
I removed the console, front of the machine, and accessed the water pump.
I'm glad I did because all the hoses were gunked up and this is what our cloths
were washing in. There is even a catch bucket which I assume
is to catch coins. I didn't find any, but this basket was gunked up.
The previous week, the machine threw an E13 error code, which means the drain
time was too long. Lucky for me, there are a bunch of
YouTube videos that explain exactly how to take the machine apart to access all
the components.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJzFgekaOwISearch
Youtube for your model with the word Disassembly. It took me a few
hours to take the machine apart and put it back together. I actually
had to do it twice because I didn't connect one of the hoses correctly, and the
machine leaked water all over the floor. Despite this set back, I
was able to take the machine apart, reconnect the hose correctly, and now the
machine runs perfectly. 07/02/16 - On this day I installed new lids on the poop
can containers. Please remember that no trash or junk
mail is to go in the canisters, only dog waste.

06/22/16 - A meeting was held at Volunteer park.
I did not attend this meeting but heard what happened afterwards.
Two homeowners showed up, one of them interested in becoming a board memeber to
replace Lisa. Future projects were discussed, such as pressure
cleaning the fences. Homeowners need to replace broken
fence slats first before this can happen.

06/21/16 - I will not be in town for the meeting on
06/22/16. Check for an update a few days later.
Board member Lisa Mucha Sanchez is leaving, moving to the west coast.
She started her service at the same time as me and the current board thanks her
for her service. If anyone is interested in becoming a director,
come to a meeting.

06/09/16 - On this day I dropped off another check for
the Master. On my way out of QIV, I read another notice on their
mailbox saying the special assessment meeting had been cancelled and would be
rescheduled. Don't know why but I can only guess there was
pressure from homeowners who were mad. I don't blame them.
First they get hit with a rate increase, then asked to pay $1,200 in three
months. Can't manage the money for the
master, and can't manage the money at QIV when it comes to a long term road
paving project. Once again, for those thinking of moving here,
reconsider. I expect a revolt and overthrow at the
annual meeting, which will be held next year. The people want
change, the problem is, no one is willing to step up and take over.

05/25/16 - On this day I dropped off checks for the
Master. I do this by leaving them on the porch of Michelle who
lives in QIV. On the way out I read a notice on their
mailbox talking about a special assessment meeting to be held on June 2nd.
They want to assess their homeowners $600 in August and $600 in October to pay
for a road paving project. This is what happens when a board
spends too much money. And to think, one of their board
members is Tom Yeager, a CPA. They have 82 homes,
so once all money is collected they would get $98,400. Good job QIV.
This is basically an extra $100 a month added to the regular bill for a total of
$229.
In comparison, Q3 has kept the same monthly assessment for the past 10
years at $125, and there has been no special assessment since the current board
came into power. For those shopping Q3 to Q4,
you decide if you want to pay an extra $1,200. If a home is
vacant or has dead beats, the money is collected when the home finally sells,
and the new owner has to pay it at closing.
Q3 did the road paving project by funding reserves for 8 years, and we're
funding reserves to do the same thing 10 years from now with no special
assessment. We post the bank balances in the newsletter
and don't hide anything. The last special assessment for Q3
was back in 2006 when the previous board was in power. It was $600,
with payments of $100 a month. After the assessment, the
president stepped down and the current board came into power (hint, hint).

5/04/16 - On this day the mail box pads were painted
green by the maintenance man.

04/30/16 - Here's something I've done before, cleaned my
AC downtube. Depending on your home style and AC model, you'll
have a tube coming out of the AC system that sends water out of the house.
It's a good idea to flush this tube. You've always wanted a
good reason to use duct tape, well here it is. Duct tape a
hose to the downtube and turn it on. If the water flows
freely, you're done.

04/27/14 - A meeting was held at Volunteer Park.
Please welcome Anne Jones as Secretary to the board.
Anne has been attending meetings since she moved into the neighborhood.
She replaces Shari who moved to the Ocala area (Stone Creek) to retire.
After Anne came up to the table to take notes, there were no members in the
audience. It was the board members and the property manager.
Violations were discussed. It appears that one home has sold
with the new owners paying previous deliquent fees of 14k.
This is what happens when homes sell, the new owners have to pay the previous
deliquent fees. This is how the board recovers lost
money. Current maintenance issues were discussed, such as
painting the mail box pads. Ideas about new projects were
discussed, including getting bids for tree trimming.
Anyone interested in becoming a director can come to the next meeting.
Another board member will be moving soon.

04/06/16 - A master association meeting was held at Parc
Court, this was the annual meeting. All members were
present except Tom Yeager from The Colonnades. All members kept
their positions from the previous year. A bid passed to hire
Analog Electric to fix the lights at the corner of The Colonnades at a cost of
$2,975. These lights have been broken for 3 years.
Discussion ensued about tree trimming, and Michelle's idea to have 5 bottle
brush trees removed. The problem is, the City requires 3 trees to be
planted for each one removed, and this can be expensive.
Discussion ensued about the ficus bushes around Jacaranda Point thinning.
The problem is, the landscaping company is blowing the leaves into the bushes,
and only picking them up once a month. This causes problems
for the pest control company who is trying to treat the ficus. The
discussion became heated when the idea of finding a new landscaping company was
mentioned.

03/31/16 - Our pool house roof was finished by Latite
Roofing at a cost of $9,380.75.

03/30/16 - Our secretary will be moving soon, same for a
director. Our board of 7 will have 2 vacant positions.
We have someone in mind to fill one position. It
is the board who appoints new members unless there is a quorum at the annual
meeting which causes an election. Otherwise the current
board rolls over and a vote takes place on whether to keep the same positions.
This happened at the recent annual meeting, the current board rolled over.
You can read all about this in the Elections section. Anyone interested in
serving, please come to the next meeting on April 27th.

3/14/16 - Our Bylaws and Articles were scanned to a PDF
file. Right click and "Save As" to your computer.ByLawsArticlesQ3

02/27/16 - The latest newsletter is here. It
was distributed to everyone in the neighborhood and posted at the pool. Newsletter_Spring_2016.doc

02/17/16 - The annual meeting was held at Volunteer
Park. Eight members were present in the audience. The
total count was 16. The current board rolled over for the 10th
year, and the membership meeting was adjourned. In the regular
meeting, homes at the
attorney were discussed. Items for repair were discussed
including the roof at the pool.

12/23/15 - The fountain between Q3 and Q4 was finally
anchored in the correct spot. New mulch was installed at the
playground, and the bushes on the north side of the pool were replaced with
mammy crotons.

12/16/15 - I signed checks for the master today, and one
of them was to repair the fountain between Q3 and Q4 in the amount of $550.
The only reason I think this came about quickly, is because the fountain between
Q4 and Parc court is also broken. This fountain had just been
repaired, and now it's broken again. CiCi gave
approval to have both fountains repaired by Cascade.

A Quatraine3 meeting was held at Volunteer park.
Two homeowners were in the audience. Accounts at the attorney
were discussed. Checks were signed to start work
on two landscaping projects. One of them is remulching the tot lot
next to the pool at a cost of $1,025. The other is to clean up
the bushes on the north side of the pool and install new mammy croton plants at
a cost of $1,971. A deposit check was signed for Latite
Roofing to replace the pool house roof at a final cost of $10,125. A
homeowner in attendance asked about commercial vehicles (plumbing van).
The rule is they are not allowed unless covered. Another homeowner
asked about newsletters. It's posted at the pool and here on
this web site below.

Also on this day, a wet test was done by Tropical Turf
Landscape Maintenance. They will not enter back yards, but make sure
the sprinklers are working, and if something is broken, then they will knock on
the door and try to make repairs. If you see a gusher or have
broken sprinkers, let the property manager know and a work order will be opened
to make repairs.

12/14/15 - On this day I got a phone call from the
Quatraine4 electrician about the master lights across from Central Park.
I told them where they are located and said they can call me if they want to
meet.

12/12/15 - The fountain between Q3 and Q4 is still
broke, has been broke since the Thanksgiving holiday week. This is
handled by the master as mentioned below. I e-mailed the property
manager sending her pictures on November 23rd. I since followed up
kept getting responses saying that the repair estimate from Cascade was coming
and they were on vacation or busy with other work orders. This
is the kind of stuff I deal with when working with the master. In
the past I would contact the vendors directly and take care of everything.
The lights across from Central Park are still out because Michelle wants to get
a bid (using her electrician), even though we already have 2 bids that are $100
apart (apples to apples). People wonder why it takes so
long to fix things, now you know why. Meanwhile, the uplights
in the island at the entrance of 98th ave were replaced by Bar Control Electric
in one week after letting Becky know. All of our entrance lights are
now LED and should last a long time.

11/26/15 - On this Thanksgiving day, I repaired a light
fixture at the 98th ave entrance that had come apart. The bottom
part the holds the globe up had corroded, the globe was loose.
To make the repair, I had to take the fixture apart, take the parts home, clean
them up, and reassemble the fixture. One of the up lights in the
island was busted. I let Becky know to call Bar Control Electric to
replace both up lights with new LED fixtures in the entrance island.
This is the kind of stuff that happens when board members help out.
All of the board members of QIII see things that need to be repaired, and let
Becky know. But if you see something we missed, tell us.
That's why we have meetings every other month. In
other news, the fountain between QIII and QIV has come loose from it's anchor.
It tilts to the side and only sprays one stream to the side.
This is taken care of by the master. I sent CiCI an e-mail letting
her know to call Cascade to get it fixed.

10/28/15 - A meeting was held at Volunteer park.
6 board members, the property manager, and 3 homeowners showed up.
The pool had 50 cracked tiles along the top with grout issues, this was causing a leak.
A motion was made to accept a bid from Seminole Pool Services to drain the pool
5 inches and fix the broken tiles at a cost of $4,000. Top
Shelf Irrigation gave 30 days notice, they no longer want to service our
property for various reasons. Money was mentioned as an issue,
another was the hassle of going into back yards. They were
once threatened when trying to enter a back yard to make repairs.
More money was offered but they didn't seem interested. The problem
is our community takes 1.5 days to service, we have 3 pumps with 16, 17, and 16
zones for a total of 49 to check. In the future, if your
gate is locked, no service will be done unless it's a line break.
Becky is getting bids for a new irrigation company, with the idea of doing the
wet test bi-monthly. A motion was made and passed to hire
Latite to replace the roof at the pool house at a cost of $8,300 using Integra
smooth tiles.
They provide three 5/8" sheets of plywood, with extra sheets costing $60.75.
It was mentioned that our mail box pads need to be re-painted after the pressure
cleaning, which is a job for our maintenance man. Violation
letters were requested for commercial vehicles with signs on them, they need to
be covered up or the vehicle can be towed at any time.
A
motion was made and passed to approve the 2016 budget. For 10 years
in a row, the budget stays at $125 a month. I have been
on this board since 02/28/2006 and have always made it a point to not raise
dues. The fee was raised by the previous board leading into the 2006 year,
and has remained the same ever since.
Often mentioned in realtor ads, we have one of the lowest HOA fees period. History of due raises:
1996 - $85, 2001 - $90, 2002 - $100, 2004 - $110, 2006 - $125.

10/15/15 - On this day, electrical repairs were made at
the pool and front entrance by Bar Control Electric. The
automatic timers in the bathrooms were replaced with motion sensors.
Two electrical boxes near the back side of the pool were replaced along with a
light pole. The plug to the fountain and a plug on the wall were
replaced. Both photo cells at the front entrance and the
lights that shine on the main wall were replaced with new LED lights.
At the same time, the tiles at the pool were being cleaned and a leak test was
being performed by Seminole Pool. That's why the
level of the water was low.

10/10/15 - A new color chart was placed at the pool
bulliten board. It is the same chart, but with new color tiles.
Remember, the tiles are not exact in terms of color, because the sun shines on
the chart in the afternoon, and fades the tiles. You still need need
to visit the paint store to get tiles or a small sample. Please
remember to fill out an AMF form which can be found on the Ambassador web site
here.
http://www.ambassadormanagement.com/mod.htmThe board
requires the AMF to make sure houses next to each other are not the same color.
In other news, our pool has a leak. The board is aware of it and approved
a leak test to find the problem.

10/07/15 - A master association meeting was held at Parc
Court. 3 bids were presented for landscaping. Lawn and
Landscape plus was the lowest and their bid was approved, the monthly fee is now
set at $3,300. The bid to fix the lights at the corner of The Colonnades
was discussed. The bid from Brackney came in at $3,250 to install 6
LED lights and a photo cell. Each LED fixture was listed as
costing about $300. The labor was listed at 100.00hr/2 men.
Michelle spoke up saying she would get a 2nd bid. The lights have
been broken for 2 years, now they will stay out even longer until another bid
comes in and we discuss it. Two bids were
presented to fix the fountain between Quatraine IV and Parc Court.
The bid from Cascade (they installed the fountain) came in at $1,845 for a new
5hp motor. The bid from All State Resource (They do our lakes and
fix fountains) came in at a cost of $2,595 for a new 5hp motor. A
motion was made to accept the repair bid from Cascade.
The insurance renewal was discussed, it's substantial higher than last year.
The board gave approval to CiCi to get more estimates on the insurance going
forward. Two trees growing into the Parc Court corner of the
lake were discussed. Mark's foreman from L&L plaus said he
doesn't go any further than the beginning of the split.
Steven said he would talk to his landscaper about trimming those trees.
The new budget was passed. The budget was raised because of
the fee to L&L Plus, Pest Quest, and Insurance went up. During
the discussion, Michelle asked about trimming trees, which we normally do every
18 months. She asked what we did with that money this year.
It was "absorbed" by the overspending. The overall
yearly budget went from $98,892.00 to $114,780.00. The fee that Q3
pays each month went from $1,712.68 to $1,987.84.
A motion was made and passed by Michelle to get a proposal to remove 5 bottle
brush trees near Parc Court and see what the city requires regarding
replacement. In light of my e-mails
regarding the overspending, Tom Yeager made a motion to engage a CPA to throurly
investigate (forensics accounting) that Robert reduced to writing in his Oct 3,
2015 e-mail to the board. Tom went on to read statements from the
e-mail in regards to 23k that was "missing." Missing was
clarified to mean "spent" with the budget not followed. The
operating account under Tom and Michelle went from 49k to 15k.
The budget from the previous year was incorrect (Tom was Treasurer) and was not
followed. Tom's motion didn't pass, the next meeting was set
for March, and the meeting ended. It's
no wonder that QIV has no participation on thier board. It is
run by Tom and Michelle who are impossible to work with.
Their sidewalks have black puddles (was never a problem when Terry was the
irrigation vendor). Their no trespassing sign is in the lake at this time,
their main entrance wall is smashed in, and their entrance wall lights are not
working properly. Karma is catching up with them.

10/06/15 - On this day the sidewalks were pressure
cleaned by A Plus Pressure Cleaning at a cost of $1,154.89.

08/26/15 - A meeting was held at Volunteer park.
Violations and accounts at the attorney were discussed. A
foreclosed home sold, and another homeowner paid all deliquent dues to the
attorney, which results in the association collecting deliquent assessment
money. The board discussed 3 bids for a new roof at the pool house.
More information is needed from one vendor regarding whether they do a hot mop
or not, then the board will make a decision. There was one
homeowner present, who said she likes the neighborhood.

08/17/15 - During this week, the trees were trimmed by
Native Sun. This was a light trim to get branches off the homes at a
cost of $7,990.

06/30/15 - A final walk through was done with Daren of
All Paving. A few spots in the pavement have grooves in them where
the garbage trucks travel twice a week. This is because the pavement
had not cured yet. All Paving will come out and smooth these spots
at the end of July.

06/24/15 - A meeting was held at Volunteer Park, 3
homeowners were present. The violation list was passed out and
discussed. A bid to paint fences in vaious locations was approved
for Thomas Burk of HOA Maintenance and Repair in the amount of $2,610.
Accounts at the attorney were discussed in detail.

06/20/15 - The gate at the pool was repaired.
The hinges had broken because they were not attached to the gate properly.
Mark's Fence came out and installed 3 new hinges with more bolts for support.

06/03/15 - A master association meeting was held at Parc
Court. Now remember, everything on this web site is a
story, or fiction. Two weeks before the meeting, I received
the financial statement and looked it over. I noticed the fee for
the landscaping was $4,100 a month, when six months ago it was $2,800.
Michelle had told the board members the bushes needed to be cleaned, and it
would cost $500. But now it was a $1,300 increase, not the $500 she
told everyone. It turns out, the landscapers were charging $500 per
cut to clean up under the bushes, and no one knew where the extra $300 was when
asked. I also noted
we no longer had white fly and that the extra contract for that could be
terminated, saving us $7,200. At the meeting, Tom Yeager called Dana
from Pest Quest to talk about this extra fee. Dana rambled on stating how
he comes out every month and the extra contract covers more than just white fly.
I wasn't happy about this explanation, but the other members went along with it
thanking Dana. Tom wanted to call Victor about the higher
sprinkler repairs, but I said no, I wasn't interested in speaking to him.
If you remember, Michelle and Tom fired Terry from Top Shelf without cause at a
previous meeting. I mentioned there were other
problems that needed to be fixed, such as lights on directional signs, the light
timer box on the fountain between Q3 and Q4, and a gushing sprinkler at the
entrance of Q3 (the grass was already brown). CiCi said she would
have these issues taken care of (even though I had mentioned the broken lights 6
months ago). Once all that bickering was done, the
voting for positions took place under new business. I became
Treasurer because Tom Yeager was going away for a while.
At the time of the meeting, the operating account was down to 13k, but it was
decided to transfer 6k from reserves to cover the new signs across from Central
Park. Just so everyone knows, when I was treasurer before, the
operating account had 49k in it. That transfer
would bring the operating account to 19k. The reserves had 55k at
the time of the meeting, they hadn't been pilfered yet.
The decision was also made to reduce the cleanings under the bushes to once a
month at a fee of $500, and review the landscaper contract. So
in summary, Michelle and Tom over spent the money, giving a 15k raise to the
landscapers, let Victor over changer on sprinkler repairs, and left a white fly
contract in place for $7,200 that isn't needed, all in a period of 6 months.
Depending on how the landscpaing contract is reduced, I'll have to increase the
budget of the master to compensate for this spending. If you
want to vent, please let Michelle Piracci and Tom Yeager know they've done a
great job overspending the money from the master. Tom is also a CPA
by the way, he made sure to mention that at the meeting while saying the
finances were in good shape. But please remember, this is only
rumors, it's not real.

5/22/15 - The road paving project went from 04/20/15 to
05/20/15 at a final cost of $219,116.38. The board saved for 8 years
to complete this project, never raising the monthly fee, nor having a special
assessment. Before and after pictures are
below. Click each to make bigger, then back to return here.

Above are pictures of the entrance at 98th ave.

Above are pictures of 99th ave.

05/20/15 - On this day, the old style dog poop
containers were put back in place. Why? Because
the white tubes were dirty and didn't work out so well. The
goal of the white tubes was to stop people from putting home trash into the
cans. The people who were doing this have moved away.

Remember, only dog waste is allowed in these cans.

04/22/15 - A meeting was held at Volunteer park.
Motions were made regarding accounts at the attorney and how to deal with them.
There was discussion about the root cutting process for the road paving project.
It was mentioned that the light and plants at the 98th Ave entrance were damange
by the paving company. Discussion ensured about how to pay for the
root cutting and road paving projects in regards to the operating and reserve
accounts. Hard tree trimming and fence painting bids were
requested. No homeowners showed up at this meeting, other than the
husband of a board member.

04/17/15 - The road paving project will start on Monday
April 20th. The 1st Three cul-de-sacs will be done.
They will be milled, and then root pruning will happen.
Cars parked in guest spots will be towed to Another part of the community.
Please remember to Lock Your Car Doors during this process.

03/25/15 - What is the delay with the paving project?
The City of Plantation requires a certified aborist to do the root pruning of
the streets. Not only that, they require the arborist to
submit a report of all trees, their width at the bottom, top, distance from the
street, and canopy size. In other words, they make things
complicated. The board did not know about this.
The 1st bid for root pruning came in too high, the vendor wanted to prune every
tree along the streets. Another bid was needed and is
currently in the works only pruning the trees causing the most damage.

02/26/15 - The annual meeting was held at volunteer
park. 10 people showed by proxy, 6 board members, and 5
homeowners for a total of 21. 51 are required to have a quorum
at the annual membership meeting, the current board rolled over for the 9th
year, and the membership meeting was adjourned. In the regular board
meeting, repairs were discussed. The pool shower drain was
repaired by Moody plumbing at a cost of $1,485. The pipe leading
from the shower to the lake was replaced as roots had broke through it.
The drain cover was also replaced. The fence facing
Cleary needs to be painted. The pool house wall near the water
fountain needs to be painted. A mailbox pad needs to be
painted. A bid was presented to do root pruning of the
roads before the paving project, but the linear feet was too high (he wanted to
root prune every tree in the neighborhood, approximately 309 at 5050 linear
feet) so a new bid will be required. A bid was accepted to
hire Guaranteed Pest Control to treat the community every 2 months.
A homeowner complained about solicitors knocking on their door about a security
system.

02/14/15 - All Paving sent out a bid for driveway repair
and homeowners responded by e-mail. All Paving then sent out an
e-mail to those who responded (26 homeowners) not using the "BCC" option.
This meant everyone was on the thread, and most responded saying the price was
too high at $1,500. Four board members were on the thread including
myself. Below is the official response from
the board that was sent to everyone on the thread (Reply-All).

To the QIII community,

As most of the Quatraine
III residents do not attend Association board meetings, and it's not clear how
many residents log in to the Quatraine III Yahoo Group to read the posted
minutes, there is a lack of understanding of our bidding process for the road
paving project.

We received 3 references from All
Paving, 2 residential communities and 1 commercial job, and checked them,
including going on property to see in person the work they performed. All 3
references provided very positive feedback, and the actual paving work was
excellent.

We have signed a contract with All Paving to do the roadways
and cul-de-sacs. Individual driveways are the responsibility of the homeowners.
We understand that All Paving's price for driveways has been considered too
high. Homeowners are encouraged to contact other paving companies for bids.

Sincerely,

Your Board of Directors

01/14/15 - This note is to inform all residents of the
Asphalt Paving project that will be completed over the next month on your
neighborhood roadways. We are scheduled to commence this project over the next
month. - While we are completing this work we will be providing all residents
with the option of having their existing driveway removed and a new one
installed. - Since each resident’s driveway varies in size we will be providing
those home owners interested in having their driveways completed individual
pricing. - We are providing two options for residents to receive a quote
(A) You may call our office at 954-933-2053, and let the front desk know you are
a Q III resident and provide our estimating department with your Name, Address,
Phone Number and Email Address to send the proposal. Or (B) You may send
an email to info@allpaving.com, subject being “QIII”, and in the email please
provide us with your Name, Address, Phone Number, and Email Address. All
requests must be made before 1/20/2015.

01/04/15 - My front yard isn't doing well.
I found out it's Fungus. I bought fugus control from Home Depot and
have notified the landscaper.

12/22/14 - A message was posted to the Quatraine3 Yahoo
message board giving more information about the paving project. It
reads...

Over the last few months,
the Board received several bids for repaving the Quatraine III roadways.
After checking on work and contacting references, we voted to award the
contract to All Paving. The price is such that the work will be covered
completely by the Reserves we have been salting away for years. We will
likely have some Reserve funds left over, which is needed as a cushion
against storm damage and other large expenditures.

Repaving will include 98th Ave, 9th Ct, and 99th Ave, and all
cul-de-sacs, exclusive of driveways. A contact person at All Paving
will be available to call directly for individual homeowners who want
their driveways repaved at their own expense.

Once the work has started, there will be some short-term
inconvenience with respect to parking. As long as everyone cooperates
and demonstrates a bit of patience, we'll get through this and have
beautiful roads by spring.

12/17/14 - A meeting was held at Volunteer Park.
Pool pavers will be repaired in January. Various plumbing
repairs in the pool bathrooms are scheduled. A motion passed to approved a
bid from All Paving.

12/08/14 -On this day the sidewalks
and curbs were pressure cleaned by A-Plus Pressure Cleaning at a cost of
$1,054.62.

11/08/14 - A bid to repair the sidewalks was approved
using Tom Burke at a cost of $4,025. Work was started to grind
down raised sidewalks, and remove entire sections that were cracked beyond
repair. Also on this day, I received my coupon book, the fee
remains at $125. If you did not get your coupon book,
contact the property manager.

10/22/14 - A meeting was held at Volunteer Park.
The entire 7 member board, the property manager, and 1 homeowner were present.
The budget passed keeping the fee at $125 for the 9th year in a row.
Our fee is one of the lowest around, we have 170 units.
The fee at QIV is $130 with 82 units. The fee at Jacaranda Point is
$115 with 136 units. Parc Court (200 units) and The
Colonnades (230 units) are condos, their fee is higher. The 5
communities just mentioned are also part of a master association.

On the violation list, 37 letters have been written,
most for dirty roofs. The next violation walk through will take
place in January after the holidays. Various accounts at the
attorney were discussed, one of them a renter who is not paying. If
someone is renting from a dead beat, the renter is responsible for paying the
dues to the board, otherwise, the attorney is contacted to evict.
Various issues of repair were discussed, including leveling the pavers in front
of the pool gate, 2 new light fixtures above the water fountain, repair men's
room bathroom faucets with plastic bolts, clear shower drain and replace cover,
paint new fence pickets, clean pool furniture, get bids for sidewalk repair,
review road resurfacing bids.

A new bid was discussed for road paving, this bid came
in much lower at approximately $248,000 depending on which jobs will be done.
The board plans on getting one more bid from the first company that came in at
300k. The board believes the bid dropped because fuel costs
have gone down. The board also believes a special assessment will
not be necessary to do the job.

In the open forum, a homeowner shared information about
flood insurance ratings. If you receive a letter saying it's no
longer required, and you keep it, the premium may drop.
Homeowners can contact the city engineering department asking if their home is
in a flood zone or not.

The fall newsletter was posted at the mailboxes and the
pool. Click the link and a word file should appear. Or
Right Click then "Save As" to your hard drive.

10/15/14 - A new door lock was installed at the pool,
with a metal grate which keeps people from breaking the lock with a screwdriver.
The lock is only on the outside, so anyone can exit without needing a key.
The cost of this was $1,596.10. The pool was closed for repair, a
new surge tank was replaced at a cost of $1,350. The pool re-opened on 10/20/14.

10/01/14 - A Master Association Meeting was held at Parc
Court. A motion was passed to install 3 park benches at a cost of
$3,400 by ACECA Construction. One of them to be located between QIII
and QIV along the north lake sidewalk. A motion to replace the two
directional signs along Cleary passed, will be done by Testa&Sons Signs in the
amount of $6,413. A motion passed approving the new budget, which
was slightly lower than the previous year. Landscaping of Jacaranda
Point was discussed, the area under their hedges is not being cleaned up and the
landscapers need to do something about this. Tree Trimming is
scheduled for next year in May, I mentioned that the trees under the power lines
of QIII need to be trimmed, and some of them are nusciance trees.

09/26/14 - Bulk Schedule updated through 2015.
We have a new maintenance man who is ready to do a long list of projects.
Various jobs we hope this person can do are painting the mailbox pads, scrubbing
the pool chairs, cleaning the bathrooms, pulling weeds at front entrance
planters, waxing the mailboxes, picking up trash on entire property,
painting/repairing fence slats as needed , cleaning tot lot equipment, pulling
weeds in pool area planters, and cleaning signs.

09/04/14 - Two pool lights were replaced with LED
fixtures at a cost of $1,390. Swim with confidence knowing our pool is safe.
The pool lights are on a timer only coming on at night, the voltage going to the
lights is 12V. The entire system was checked by a
professional electrician in August when the pump motor was replaced.

08/31/14 - Check out pictures of the recent landscape
work here. Our community looks great after the work by Native Sun.
Pictures 2014

08/27/14 - Landscape work continued around the community
with mulch installed. A meeting was held at Volunteer park, 2
homeowners showed up. A motion passed to replace two pool
lights at a cost of $1,390 with new LED fixtures. This will replace
the north and west light in the pool, which are burned out and filled with
water. The electrical system around the pool was checked when the
pump was replaced. Our pool lights are 12v, the 110v power is
converted down by boxes at the side of the pool. Replacing the
lights is another step to make sure our pool is safe. The budget was
discussed, a revised 2015 budget was presented with changes from the previous
year. The fee is still scheduled to stay at $125.
A board member asked why we can't increase by $5. The answer
was we want to keep our fee lower than QIV, and the low fee is a way to
encourage people to continue to pay on time. The road paving
project was discussed asking how we can pay for it with money in the reserves.
A previous bid came in at 300k. The board asked the property manager
to get 2 more bids. The idea of a small special assessment of $300
per homeowner was discussed. A new maintenance man
named Gary was started, his hours would be 11:30am to 03:30pm.

08/20/14 - Landscape work started by Native Sun.
This is a major project to re-landscape the entire community at a cost of
$20,827.50. A hard
trim was done, followed by bed cleaning and removal of rocks.

08/07/14 - The new pump motor was installed at a cost of
$1,821.
Pool was still closed until the chemical levels could be checked.
The pool re-opened the next day on 08/08/14.

07/31/14 - The pump motor burned out. A new
motor was ordered.

07/08/14 - Pressure cleaning was started by Continental.
They will also paint 3 fence sections. A landscaping bid was also
approved, which will happen once pressure cleaning and painting is done.
Faucets in the women's bathroom at the pool were repaired.
Someone asked if the news letter could be published online.
This web site IS a news letter, but I'll put it here since the Summer version
was 2 pages which combined all the topics from the previous news letters.
Click the link and a word file should appear. Or Right Click then
"Save As" to your hard drive.

06/25/14 - A meeting was held at Volunteer park.
Becky talked to a company about the pavers at the pool, but needs a formal bid.
She also talked to Continental Painting bringing a bid to the meeting
regarding pressure cleaning and painting, but the bid needed to be updated to
not include painting the curb stops. It was decided to hire a
plumber to fix the faucets in the women's bathroom at the pool.
Three homeowners were present in the audience at the open forum, two of them new
homeowners attending their first meeting. Tree trimming was
discussed, along with AMF forms for painting the home.

05/07/14 - A master association was held at Parc Court,
this was the annual meeting. I stayed on as a director.
Michelina Piracci stayed on as President, Jeff Brighman as Vice President.
Ton Yeagar stayed on as Treasurer, and the Secretary position was defaulted to
Shirl Stout of Jacaranda Lakes (who didn't show up to the meeting).
They asked if I wanted to do it, but I said no. This is what
they get for firing Terry from Top Shelf. The property manager
from J&L (CiCi) took the minutes. That's right, the property
manager was taking the minutes. After the annual
meeting, items of discussion were adding park benches along the walk ways
between QIII, QIV, and Parc Court. Designs were presented with
discussion. I mentioned that kids would probably throw the
benches in the lake, because QIII used to have benches next to the jungle gym.
Do you know where that bench is now? It's in the lake. The
next item of discussion was replacing the lights on the signs with LED lights.
These lights are very expensive, one light can cost $400. QIII has
one of these lights at the entrance of 99th ave, it cost $400 to install with
the light. Tom said he would visit a lighting store and check into
this. Yep, I'm holding my breath.
Next item of discussion was the directional sign across from Central Park, it's
busted up and needs repair. In the open forum
Michelina asked what is causing the horrible mess on the sidewalks in front of
QIV. There are puddles that are forming.
I know the answer to this, and it involves the sprinkler system, but I didn't
say anything. CiCi said they could get an engineer out there to
figure it out. We never had this problem
when Terry from Top Shelf was taking care of the system. The meeting
ended, Michelina and Tom left, and I told Jeff I knew the answer, but if
they wanted to use Victor to do the sprinklers, they could figure it out.
Jeff said he wished I had spoken up in the meeting. The
next meeting probably won't happen for six months, so the sidewalk puddles in
front of QIV will stay that way. And if they want to re-hire Terry
from Top Shelf, that will solve the problem.

04/23/14 - A meeting was held at Volunteer park.
Maintenance issues were discussed at length. The faucets in the
women's bathroom were pulled up from the sink, new faucets will be installed by
Pedro (the maintenance man) or a plumber. Renters who placed boards on the
outside of their fence were notified by letter this is not allowed.
Tree trimming is underway, the cost of this job is $9,356.
It was mentioned that the maintenance man needs to nail fence slats back up that
have fallen down. It was also mentioned that Pedro can clean the
backs of the pool chairs. Once tree trimming is done, future plans
are to pressure clean the sidewalks, then mulch the community.

03/24/14 - My roof was pressure cleaned by Continental Painting.
Check out the 1st picture for their web site and phone number. The
mail box pads were also painted green by the new maintenance man.

02/26/14 - The annual meeting was held at Volunteer Park.
6 Homeowners were present in the audience, 7 board members, and the property
manager. A total of 25 were present when proxies were included.
This was not enough for a quorum and the current board rolled over.
The annual membership meeting was adjourned and the regular board meeting
happened. Violations and financials were discussed. For
those who don't know, the list of violations is 5 pages. At this time, 28
people are on the violation list, most for dirty roofs, followed by the home
needing to be painted. Regarding financials, deliquent
accounts are down to 20k, it was 50k a few years ago.
For upcoming projects, Trees will be trimmed in April by McKenna, followed by
pressure cleaning the sidewalks. A homeowner mentioned that leaving bulk
garbage on the grass kills it, or the claw from the bulk pickup truck grabs the
grass and leaves a dead spot. Therefore, it would be nice if
homeowners leave bulk pickup in the street on Saturday morning of bulk pickup,
instead of in the grass circles.

Before the annual meeting, I met the owner from
Continental Painting to discuss various projects around the community that
involved painting and pressure cleaning. I also spoke to one of the
owners who lives across from the tot lot about painting the new fence they
installed. Future projects are painting the mailbox pads
green, and roof at the pool house pressure cleaned. Once tree
trimming is done, the sidewalks and curbs will be pressure cleaned.
http://continentalpaintingfl.com/index.html